No good options for Syrians trapped in refugee camps near Israel

Israeli soldier uses a speaker to communicate with Syrian Refugees marching towards the Israeli Security fence demanding help on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights in Quneitra province, as seen from the Israeli side of the border. (Photo: ATEF SAFADI, EPA-EFE)

CAIRO – As many as 1,000 Syrian refugees from Daraa were camped in recent days on the rocky slopes of Quenetra, the Syrian province next to the Golan Heights in Israeli-occupied territory. They were hoping to find refuge in the Jewish State.

But Israel has made it abundantly clear that they will not allow the refugees into their country.

“Regarding southern Syria, we will continue to defend our borders,” tweeted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as refugees started moving toward the Golan fence this month. “We will extend humanitarian assistance to the extent of our abilities. We will not allow entry into our territory & we will demand that the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement w/ the Syrian army be strictly upheld.”

On Friday, Alhgani and the several hundred refugees who had fled villages in southern Syria were forced to go back to government-controlled areas in the same towns where the independent civilian defense forces known as White Helmets had been evacuated in a deal involving Syria, Russia and rebel militias.

Ninety-eight White Helmets volunteers, with 324 of their family members – mostly women and children were evacuated through the Syrian-Israeli border fence Saturday, with the Israeli army immediately transporting them to Jordan.

Since 2013, Israel has treated around 5,000 Syrians injured in the civil war in Israeli military field hospitals at the border and at the public hospital in the northern Israeli city Nahariya and the army had provided tents to refugees camped at the border.

Smoke rises above opposition-held areas of the Daraa province countryside during airstrikes by Syrian regime forces on June 27, 2018.
Russian-backed regime forces have for weeks been preparing an offensive to retake Syria's south, a strategic zone that borders both Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.(Photo: MOHAMAD ABAZEED, AFP/Getty Images)

“The journey here was a difficult one, but we thought we’d be safer in Israel,” said Sheikh Abdel Aziz Alhgani a 55-year-old Sunni Muslim preacher and clan leader from Daraa’s al-Rifa’i tribe, speaking by phone. “Russian and regime aircraft were just above us the whole way here.”

Daraa is the city near the Jordanian border that many consider the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that triggered Syria’s bloody civil war.

Neighboring Jordan already hosts 1.3 million Syrians from Daraa and other southern Syrian border provinces. But the kingdom has declared it won’t accept more.

“Jordan is at capacity,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi after Syrian rebels surrendered their position at the Nasseb border crossing, which they had held since 2015. “We can’t host more.”

Istanbul-based analyst Ammar Kahf at the Omran Strategic Studies think tank believes Syrian gains in Daraa mean that Iran and Hezbollah are closer to menacing Israel and Jordan, a development that increases the likelihood of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

“The story of the armed Syrian opposition is over,” Kahf said. “Iran and Hezbollah are much stronger today than a month ago and closer to the southern front. I think this (Syrian conflict) will continue to escalate.”

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army, with its manpower depleted, has relied this year on Russian air power and auxiliary forces from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia and Iranian troops to broker “reconciliation agreements” that transfer localities that have been in rebel hands for years to regime control.

But the latest reconciliation deal anti-Assad rebels signed with Russian commanders has spawned a new wave of refugees from Daraa, done little to boost civilian aid efforts and subjected wide swaths of the province to increased bombing campaigns, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Last week, the Observatory said the Russians and government army had conducted a "frenzied" bombing campaign over southern Syria.

“There is crazy fierce bombardment in Nawa,” said Abu Yaquot, 26, a Daraa resident referring to a nearby town where rebels have hunkered down alongside an estimated 100,000 civilians. “They were hit with 300 rockets in less than an hour. Bombs hit the hospital and there was nowhere to take the injured.”

The United Nations said the violence has triggered the largest wave of displaced persons to hit southern Syria since the start of the war.

“An estimated 180,000 children have been forced to flee their homes with little resource for protection, shelter or assistance,” said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa in Amman, in a statement.

Separately, last year, Daraa was included in one of four “de-escalation agreements” brokered by Russia, the United States, Syria’s neighbors Jordan, Turkey and Iran, one of Assad’s prime backers.

After that agreement some refugees returned to Daraa from Jordan including White Helmets trainees who started to remove mines from local roads and restore water lines where fighting had damaged two-thirds of the buildings.

Some of the Civil Defense workers and their families were unable to reach the evacuation point in time for Saturday’s operation.

“We were held up at Assad checkpoints and told that the road ahead was closed following advances made by jihadist groups,” said Abu Muhannad, one of scores of stranded Daraa White Helmets volunteers. “We are afraid the government will take revenge against us.”

Like previous deals in the Damascus suburbs, Homs and Aleppo, the Daraa deal allowed rebels and their supporters safe passage to Idlib province, an enclave in Syria's northwest designated for the remnants of Syria’s crushed revolt.

But those who went to Idlib are not necessarily safe.

Many believe Idlib has become a “kill box” trapping more than 1 million internally displaced refugees from Syria’s Sunni majority. On the ground, jihadists groups associated with the Islamic State terrorize civilians. From the air, Russian and pro-Assad forces launch aerial attacks.

“We have lost 251 of our volunteer colleagues due to the double bombardment by military aircraft that intentionally target rescue and medical teams,” said White Helmets' Idlib spokesman Ahmed Sheiko.

“And civilians in Idlib live under great dangers, with airstrikes and explosive barrel bombs targeting homes, markets and schools," he added. "Most of their victims are children and women.”

Residents of Idlib said that while living conditions have deteriorated, they have no option but to stay.

“While walking in the streets, you can easily notice the pale faces of despair,” said Abdul Aziz Ajini, 49, a translator for a medical relief group who said the rebels were preparing to fight back in case of a full-scale invasion. “Very few houses remained untouched by some kind of missile. But people have no other choice.”